Practice Owner
Dr. Thomas Caltabilota is the founder of City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital. Opening his very own hospital has always been his dream.
Dr. Caltabilota, can you tell us a little bit about your veterinary background and schooling?
I started as a veterinarian in 2014 after graduating from Tuskegee University in Alabama. Prior to that, I got my bachelor's at Rutgers University. I went on to get a master's degree at LSU working with horses in reproductive endocrinology. In 2018, we opened City by the Sea Vet, and it's been a dream come true.
Why did you choose the veterinary profession?
As far as why I chose this profession, people that know me know that I'm kind of a fidgety, anxious person, and animals calm me down. I wanted to create a career out of that. Working with animals made me feel so comfortable, and coming to work every day really doesn't feel like work.
Favorite Part of My Job
My favorite part of my job is seeing people around town and making connections in the community. It's always felt like working as a veterinarian here was serving the community, not really serving a business. We've also made it our mission to create a safe workspace for all our employees and to treat them with respect and dignity. We have a list of core values that we all follow and align with, and that's super important to us. There's a lot of burnout and mental health disease in our field, and so we're aware of that, and we do a lot of things to try and face that head-on.
Favorite Aspects of Veterinary Care
Some of my favorite things about veterinary care are that I really like internal medicine, and I like chronic cases. I like putting my detective hat on and really searching for clues and digging down deep to try and figure out what's wrong with this pet and how to help them. I also discovered that surgery and being in the operating room are nice, quiet places for me to concentrate and filter out all the noise. It's just me, the pet, and my surgical technician remembering my anatomy. Surgery is a great example of something that I can do with my hands to make this animal right. So, that's been a lot of fun.
Hobbies and Personal Life
As far as things that I like to do for fun, we live in Asbury Park. We live close to the beach, and I love being outside. My wife drags me out in the winter to make sure that we're out in the snow. I hate the cold. But being outside and spending time with family is important to me. I love horses still. I love horse racing. I work out a lot. I try to take care of myself.
If you have questions, I would love to answer them for you. Please give us a call at the office at (848) 217-5000, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you and I would love to meet you and your pet!
I'm not on any social media myself, but City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital is! Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram.